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Monday, November 5, 2012

Copy Cat Mystery Pocket Skirt

I've been a little less creative with my last few projects (evidence here), which is why I have no shame in calling myself a copycat. I LOVE looking at a garment (especially more intricate vintage garments) and figuring out how to recreate them myself. Even though it's not my original idea (though I do try to add my own twist to it and not outright copy it) I feel so proud of myself for going through the whole process of drafting and sewing the garment from start to finish.

My all new copycat garment comes from Suzannah's Adventures in Dressmaking. Suzannah holds a Sewing Circle, where readers send her questions and she answers them (very thoroughly I might add!) while asking other readers for their opinion and input. How cool is that?
Anyway, in Suzannah's last sewing circle (for the full post click here) a reader asked for advice on making the following skirt:

To be quite honest, I didn't much like the skirt in the beginning. I have a issue with A line skirts, I feel like the don't do much for my body, but after inspecting the skirt I realized that the fact that it grazes the hip right before it flares out (rather than being much wider than the hips) may be quite flattering.
Most of the talk in the post was about the unique pockets, which upon seeing them immidiatly got me thinking of how to recreate them. I was so excited for the challenge! OK, I admit, this was the reason I made this skirt. I cannot admit defeat, even if it's over a skirt I don't really like in the first place.

Stay tuned for a joined tutorial Suzannah and I will post tomorrow on how to draft and sew this skirt! (link to the tutorial here)

This is my version!
I have a few issues which I will share with you along the showing of the pictures.
I tried to imitate the original outfit, so I wore a chiffon shirt, which I though was a good enough effort. what say you?

What do you think of the pockets? they look the same right? huh? huh? huh?
I love how they turned out! they're not very functional, as putting something in them kind of distorts the whole look. it's not very pleasant, but who care about functionality?

This is kind of a weird shot of the back, but it's the only one I have. I admit there's not much to see, but lets all appreciate my invisible zipper for a second.

OK.
I think I can officially say that I love invisible zippers. they are SO much better than regular zippers. there, I said it. they're better. I feel like regular zippers are so much more work, no? I may have forgotten how to sew a regular zipper. does that make me a terrible sewer?

One of the issues I have with this skirt it that I stupidly decided not to line it (out of pure laziness. I hate myself sometimes) and I think it lacks the sturdiness of the original skirt. I think I'm going to line it, but I have to rip some seams which I am not looking forward too.

Another issue is that because I made this skirt in navy, it kind of reminds me of school girl skirt... I kind of like the idea and don't at the same time. I thought of adding gold buttons above and below the slits of the pockets... what do you guys think?

Don't forget to check in tomorrow in for our tutorial!
update: here's the link to the tutorial

2 comments:

i think you did a beautiful job! the pockets totally look like on the original skirt. i thought if you don't like the all-navy skirt, why don't you topstitch some of the seams in a different color? it also would highlight the pockets.

Thank you! thats a great idea! I didn't even think of it! the only thing is that I put so much effort into the pockets I'm afraid to mess up the topstitching and have to do it over and over again and ruin the pockets.. you know what I mean? thanks for the suggestion! so nice!